How can HSBC’s China real estate lending be unsecured?

Daily Express headline for the article on which this blog is based

Published on 6th December 2023

This is the third and final blog in my mini-series about the exposure of Britsh banks to China, and to Chinese real estate lending in particular.

You can acecss the whole Daily Express article of which the snapshot above is the […]

HSBC and Standard Chartered send the same emollient messages about heavy losses on China

Daily Express article headline

Published on 5th December 2023

This is the second of the three blogs on the problems of British banks in China.

You can access the whole article to which the above snapshot is the headline, via the Daily Express website through this link:

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1831225/china-contagion-hsbc-standard-chartered

HSBC released their Q3 2023 results a few days after Standard Chartered […]

Big hit for UK’s Standard Chartered Bank on Chinese business

Original Daily Express article

Published on 4th December 2023

This is the first in a series of three blogs that I will be releasing in quick succession, on China and the problems of British banks there.

You can access the whole article beneath the Daily Express headline via this link:

https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/1829526/china-economy-standard-chartered-bank-contagion

Standard Chartered took two write-downs in Q3 2023.

Firstly […]

Greensill Capital case damages the UK’s credit standing on the world stage

As published by IREF Online

Published on 2nd December 2023

Introduction

The UK government has cancelled its guarantees to a private lender – Greensill Capital – under the UK’s coronavirus support, without the obligation that was guaranteed having been discharged. This puts a major question mark against the UK’s good faith in its financial dealings: if the UK […]

Bank of England bond-buying disaster and the Treasury Select Committee

The TSC has finally started to nail the Bank of England

Published on 1st December 2023

It has inexplicably fallen below the radar that the Treasury Select Committee on 22nd November finally succeeded in cornering the Bank of England about key features of their bond buying (Quantitative Easing) and selling (Quantitative Tightening).

The upshot is that further questioning, […]

Treasury Select Committee and Quantitative Easing

Published on 30th November 2023

The Treasury Select Committee on 22nd November finally succeeded in cornering the Bank of England about key features of their bond buying (Quantitative Easing) and selling (Quantitative Tightening).

The upshot is that further questioning, apart from nailing down one or two details about how the new Bank Levy can be used, can […]

New task bolted on to European Stability Mechanism – with how much extra risk?

How the ESM now backstops the SRF

– First published by IREF Online –

Published on 27th November 2023

Introduction

The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) will now be backstop-of-last-resort to the Eurozone banking system, in addition to backstopping the Eurozone member states and the currency itself. Its resources have not been increased, though, despite its credibility and firepower already […]

Eurozone unemployment – a testimony to the failure to create a genuinely harmonised economic zone

Daily Express headline

Published on 27th November 2023

Eurozone unemployment is an average and disguises wide variations, with youth unemployment being unacceptably high in several Club Med countries.

That is the problem with making important policy decisions at several levels removed from economic units whose characteristics widely diverge.

The fact that this is the situation is a testament to […]